Rian has been a member of my staff for well over a year now and I couldn't be happier for picking him as my Magistrate. He has impressed me every step of the way thus far, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Since his debut in the Herald’s office on June 24th of last year, Rian has done an astonishing amount of work in various projects and day-to-day errands.

To begin with, ever since he joined has been hard at work on member’s warbanners and has thus far completed a total of 51 unique warbanners. As part of our bi-monthly release project, he has completed a total of 9 selector weapons (315 unique images), two selector robes (40 unique images) and two selector accessories (12 unique images), totaling 367 images in that project. He has also completed 15 Custom weapons and 10 graphics requests for the leaders of the Brotherhood which often require two or three images to complete. For the Possessions project, he completed several 3D models for ground, space and air vehicles that I had trouble finding. Combined, his efforts have gained the Brotherhood more than 450 new images that the members can enjoy.

His efforts do not end there, however. He has been an active part of the Art community, helping out where and who he can with his talent and skills. He has also been keen on learning new techniques and improving on his current skills, vastly expanding his knowledge and abilities. To say that Rian is Herald material is an understatement. His expertise in 3D modeling and 2D manipulation have created an excellent combo of quality and crispness rarely seen in this Club. He is an indispensable part of my team and I am proud to award him his third Sacramental award.

Congratulations, Rian.

• Vyr (Morgan)
• Herald of the Brotherhood

Captain Morgan Sorenn, 2017-09-22 07:18:17 UTC

Atra,

Thank you for your hard work and dedication on the possessions project. I am extremely thankful for your efforts towards our club.

Grand Master Declan Roark, 2016-12-09 21:02:08 UTC

Selika Roh (henceforth known as Slagar in this recommendation) has provided the Dark Jedi Brotherhood with outstanding support and leadership in his role as the Wiki Tribune over the past six months. The Wiki Tribune is an unheralded position because no one pays attention to it when the wiki looks good and everything is going according to plan. The reason our current wiki is working well and going to plan is because of Slagar’s direct leadership over the archive.

Slagar has dedicated countless hours and effort towards the streamlining, updating, and fixing of our wiki structure. In the past six months he has updated the wiki with 386 unique contributions. This contributions have ranged from fixing a member’s poor formatting to updating the DJB Fiction by removing those pesky Vong from our archives.

Slagar is also responsible for updated design on the front page of our wiki making it more professional and visually appealing to our members. This layout redesign is the first we have had in a long time and was a great addition to the website.

Additionally, Slagar has handled a host of initiatives from fixing our DJB timelines, to new category creation in support of possessions, and the creation of new templates to fix auto-calculations handled by our website. These initiatives also include the exceptionally well created competitions series, The Undertaking. Slagar designed, ran, and advertised this Wiki based-DJB wide competition with little guidance from me, but a lot of initiative from him. Slagar’s efforts on this event show the type of leader he has become within our club.

Managing the wiki is a tough task when things go bad and that is a testament to just how well Slagar has done in the position.

I will close by also stating that Slagar has performed tremendously as a leader within Clan Plagueis. Plagueis has had a long history of ups and downs and this is one of the few times in the DB where the Clan has remained stable and healthy for such a long period of time. I believe a large part of this is Slagar’s leadership and ability to see all sides of disputes. This is a well deserved award and I’m glad to be a part of the recommendation.

Congrats.

Grand Master Pravus

---

Grand Master Declan Roark, 2016-11-26 15:21:16 UTC

I have long held that leaders hold the responsibility for the success of their unit, that they rise and fall based primarily upon how those within their charge perform. Under strong leadership, a unit will prosper, and the Dark Council is no different from any other unit. It is here where our Grand Master shows himself to be a masterful leader, guiding this Dark Council to a year of incredible change and growth.

Shortly after taking office in February, Pravus shook the Brotherhood with a monumental decision. He immediately elevated all of our units to Clans. He made the hard choices, and removed leaders struggling. He gave struggling units like Tarentum and Odan Urr a chance to succeed, and they did. Tarentum, once a House at risk of closure, ponders an expansion to a second House. Odan Urr, once overburdened with novitiates and inactive members, plots a Feud with Plagueis. Both are better because of Pravus and the actions he took.

But Pravus was not done there. He built a plan for the next year, and began to fill it with objectives for his Dark Council, in preparation for the movies. He identified key areas of concern: with our systems, and with our membership experience, and sought to remedy them both. Along the way, he empowered current Dark Councilors to finish long-standing projects, such as the Fiction Society, as Evant describes below. He hired V’yr, and tasked him with rebuilding our website’s graphics design, which had remained unchanged for so many years, the fruits of which we can all enjoy now, with a new logo and new schemes for our different orders.

Central to most of Pravus’ plans were small groups, made up of different members and Dark Councilors, and with whom he frequently communicated. Pravus is never afraid to tell us when we are wrong, or when he thinks we are going in the wrong direction with our projects, which has been invaluable in creating the systems we have today. Every Dark Councilor has had the Grand Master correct our course or refocus our efforts for the better of the club. His guidance has been instrumental in actually seeing projects finished.

He identified that our Order/Path system was too static and too limited for characters and units. Upon reaching Grand Master, he decided we had to evaluate if we could incorporate non Force users. Further, he wanted us to work towards utilizing Orders that were not based solely on Brotherhood lore. These two core guiding principles are what lead to the creation of the Paths and Orders proposal, which now allow units to use greater flexibility in defining themselves, all while giving our membership more options for how to build characters.

Pravus paved a way forwards, directing our club into Disney’s new canon in a way that allows us to fully embrace the excitement of a brand new Star wars story. It was his decision to embrace the new universe, reversing course and abandoning the Legends content in favor of a universe that is ripe with possibilities, as the New Order and Resistance battle it out.

He also charged us with examining the membership experience, concerned both with our struggling membership retention in past years, as well as with our staggering decline in members reaching upper Equite and Elder rankings. To address both, he charged members of the Dark Council with tackling the problem in a variety of ways. We revamped the join process with his guidance, rebuilt the promotion standards, and continue a data-driven approach to identifying problems.

None of of us could really argue the impact that Pravus’ second reign as Grand Master has already had on the Brotherhood. Pravus has been exactly what this Brotherhood needed, and in every way, he is deserving of recognition and this Ruby Scepter. Thank you, Pravus, for all you do!

~Mav

Telaris "Mav" Cantor, 2016-01-01 02:14:46 UTC

Prophet Keirdagh Cantor has served with distinction as both the Consul of Clan Taldryan and as the Dark Jedi Brotherhood's Recruitment Tribune. Yacks has taken our immature social media systems and evolved them into a machine capable of rapidly producing material that is exciting and of interest to the Star Wars community. This work transformed our rarely used Facebook page to a page that now has over 750 likes and is often viewed by hundreds and hundreds of people each day. Beyond this, Yacks has led Taldryan as a grey bearded rock that the Clan can lead upon for guidance and suport.

Yacks, I am sincerely appreciative of your efforts for our club.

Grand Master Declan Roark, 2015-12-26 04:35:53 UTC

The Ruby Scepter is awarded to a select pool of Dark Jedi Brotherhood leaders who have demonstrated a consistent and long term ability to serve as a mentor. It is one of the rarest awards because of the simple subjective nature relating to the term "mentor." How exactly do we define a mentor or an individual who serves in a capacity above all of the other mentors in the club? I think we can take a look at the current Deputy Grand Master and provide an example.

Dark Prophet Telaris "Mav" Taldrya Cantor provides advice, guidance, and direction to his friends, our positioned club leadership, and the Dark Council. Mav accomplishes this in a multitude of ways, but none more important than his ability to set the example for what our senior club leaders should act like. Mav is a is a steady-state operator who provides consistency, normalcy, and a calm head in a digital age where those things are sorely lacking. Mav is the calm in the center of many DB storms and his guidance shines through on countless occasions where emotion could ruin the day.

Mav is also the manager of our entire club's leadership. He is tasked with executing my crazy ideas and timelines, managing each and every Dark Council member, and ensuring that the Clans are operating in a manner that benefits the club. He accomplishes this through constant communication, unwavering dedication, and a consistency that is uncommon among our members.

Personally, Mav is also one of the few members in our club that provides guidance and advice to both the JST and Grand Master. Jac and I are not always the easiest individuals to sway when it comes to decision making, but Mav has had an uncanny ability to help both of us see options that are not only better for our positions within the club, but for the club as a whole.

So, back to the original question. What does a consistent and long term mentor deserving of the RS look like? It looks like a guy who advises the entire club leadership, executes the Grand Master's vision, and guides the Dark Council on 20 high level projects simultaneously. It looks like a guy who has the ability to influence the GM/JST/DC/Club Leaders towards making our club a better place. It looks like Mav :p

Grand Master Sarin/Pravus

Grand Master Declan Roark, 2015-09-09 21:03:58 UTC

Howlader Taldrya is quite simply an example that should be held up for every member of the Brotherhood to emulate. There are few better than him within the entire Brotherhood at taking the most out of what the Dark Brotherhood offers, and the fact that this newfound life came to Howlader over a decade after he had joined, and subsequently abandoned me makes it all the more impressive.

At the end of the day, Howlader has one keen desire: to participate in the Brotherhood. In the company he keeps, there is often an overemphasis on winning, and on victory above all else. For Howlader, this isn’t the case. For Howlader, simply being a member, and participating in things is what he strives for… and the victories seem to follow along with him. It is this seemingly endless, begrudging enthusiasm that makes Howlader not only one of the best members of the Brotherhood, but one of the best Mentors.

Since he was appointed to the position of Rollmaster in Taldryan, Howlader has revolutionized how the position is run within Taldryan. His efforts in passing on his enthusiasm for “doing all the things” has resulted in a complete transformation of the position. Previously tasked with being an overall mentor, Howie has changed it from that limited scope to one where he not only gets to help oversee the education of new members, but directly takes a hand in guiding and mentoring Taldryan’s pool of masters as well.

His work as Rollmaster is often left unsung--buried under the mountains of personal activity--but between his nearly constant lines of communication with our newest and oldest members, and his prodigious administrative abilities, Howlader truly has changed the game. His efforts are one of the major reasons that Taldryan has returned to the prominent position it has once again. His efforts have overseen the elevation of eight Dark Jedi Knights in nine months on the job.

Howlader’s contributions in leadership, general activity, and mentorship mark him as one of the greatest assets that Taldryan, and the Dark Brotherhood have. For these reasons, and many more that my colleagues will be presenting, and even more that nobody can even quantify, I heartily recommend that Howlader Taldrya be presented with the Ruby Sceptre.

Master Keirdagh Taldrya Cantor,

Proconsul and Loyal Son of Clan Taldryan

Keirdagh Taldrya Cantor, 2014-11-24 02:51:27 UTC

The Ruby Scepter is awarded to individuals who provide a high level of consistent and meritorious mentorship throughout the Dark Brotherhood. Mentorship can take the form of improving a House by motivating members to become a competitive unit. Mentorship can take the form of developing proposals and documents in an effort to re-Clan. Mentorship can take the form of creating systems, Shadow Academy Courses, and guides for the creation of a new ACC.

Dark Prophet Halcyon has served a distinguished and nearly unequaled Dark Brotherhood career. Throughout his time in our club he has always provided insight to our members and our club wide projects resulting in the overall betterment of the DJB. Halc’s recent activity serves as another reminder of his dedication and commitment to our club. Halc has served at the House, Clan, and DJB level in various positions, but all with the same endstate in mind. Improve our people and improve our club.

Personally, I have worked with Halc for several years and his consistent commitment has been amazing to watch. He has always taken the time to improve upon DJB level ideas and work towards helping our members enjoy their DJB experience. This has recently manifested in his work with the ACC where he developed a new way for our members to Qualify for the ACC. This new system of Shadow Academy Tests affords Halc the opportunity to directly converse with our members and help them improve upon their writing and their ability to successfully complete in the ACC. Halc furthered these efforts by participating in the editing and creation of multiple ACC documents that have resulted in an overall better experience for our writers.

The Ruby Scepter is awarded for mentorship to members of the Dark Brotherhood. It is a seldom awarded honor and one that is befitting Dark Prophet Halcyon. Thanks for all you do and congratulations! ~GM Pravus

---

Well, uhm where shall I start with this? From all people invited to contribute to Halcyon's Ruby Sceptre, I am the one with the shortest time within Taldryan or the Brotherhood and thus time I have spent knowing Halc. Still for all the time he has been one of the few members always influencing myself and others by helping and mentoring them and myself how the club works and what they can do to contribute their own to make their Clan, House and the Brotherhood a better and, more importantly, more interesting place.

We all know without doubt that Halcon Rokir Taldrya has been such a member, always there, always approachable and always full of advices for those starving for it. But that's long not with it, there are few people in this club who know it better than Halcyon, members who have nearly built up this club to what it is today. Still he doesn't cease at that. Whenever an innovation hits the club, Halcyon is one of the first to adapt to it so he can mentor other members on how to adapt to these innovations as well.

Halcyon did this in the past and continues to do so willingly and all while serving the Brotherhood in varying official leadership positions like for the last six month as Quaestor of Ektrosis of Taldryan and while being one of the most active members of Taldryan at the same time, earning medal after medal and grading numerous Shadow Academy ACC Exams while mentoring his personal Apprentice beyond his Dark Jedi Knight trials to become the next generation of Taldryan's leadership. He does this out of love to this club and more importantly for its members.

Sure, you can say that these traits are something you can expect to see from someone like Halc, but we need to be remanded to never take members like him for granted. Members like Halc are the most important and rarest that we have and we must recognize their dedication and love to the Club in an appropriate manner, and as such I am hereby telling you that Halcyon Rokir Taldrya has proven his capabilities as an Instructor, Inventor and Mentor over and over again and thus earned to be rewarded with a Ruby Sceptre for his service to the members of Taldryan and the Brotherhood.

Halc, for all your mentoring within Clan Taldryan and the Brotherhood, congratulations on this Ruby Sceptre. ~Rian

---

It is hard to discuss the past ten years of the Dark Brotherhood without at some point mentioning Dark Prophet Halcyon Rokir Taldrya. This is a man, who has had his fingerprints on every aspect of Dark Brotherhood life in some way or another. He’s a twice serving Deputy Grand Master, a twice serving Master at Arms, and yet he still seems utterly incapable of riding off into the sunset to hang up his spurs. He is ultimately, a custodian of the Brotherhood’s future, and has proven his commitment to that role time and time again.

Most recently, Halcyon has proven this once more by doing exactly what those of us who know him would expect him to do: stepping up. Six months ago, Taldryan finished the long uphill climb, and returned to Clan status, but despite that triumph, Taldryan still had need of Halcyon and his talents, and Halcyon answered the call.

Since the reclanning, Halcyon has been the face and voice of Ektrosis. His hard work and dedication have ensured that from within it’s ranks, more active and contributing members have risen up and stepped into greater roles. His first official apprentice in years, Aiden Dru, has already risen to the position of Aedile within Ektrosis. Under Halcyon’s steady guiding hand, the next generation of Taldryan’s leadership is starting to emerge, and for this Taldryan is forever grateful.

Despite all of the responsibility and work that comes with the position of being a Quaestor, Halcyon’s own personal contributions to Taldryan and the Dark Brotherhood have not lessened at all. Since his last merit award, Halcyon has participated in over 60 Taldryan and DB wide competitions, placing in nearly one third of those competitions. He’s been an active participant in gaming nights, and trivia nights, and any other number of competition type you can throw at him. Not only is he an active participant in the Brotherhood, he’s also been responsible for creating and hosting over 15 events for other members of the Brotherhood.

Halcyon quite simply put should be used as an example to every member of the Brotherhood, from Grand Master down to Apprentice, on how one can be an active, and contributing member of this club.

Now, the definition of the ruby sceptre states that it is awarded to members of the Brotherhood whose work have touched a wide range of members across all the clans, and they will have contributed significantly in the areas of instruction, invention and mentorship. I can confidently state that Halcyon Taldrya fits into all of those categories. My colleagues will attach their own recommendations that espouse the efforts Halcyon has gone to within the Antei Combat Centre’s rebuild, ensuring that everyone understands and learns about the vast changes within that institution he has helped to rebuild.

But in my opinion, it is his ability to be a leader who has been so instrumental in the maintenance and creation of the Brotherhood we know today, and yet still be one who is constantly pushing the bounds of new competition, and activity design in the Brotherhood that set him apart. Since the adoption of the new forums systems, Halcyon has been one of the most active members on there, being one of a handful to earn a promotion to the second level. Halcyon was also an early adopter and promoted of twitter for the Dark Brotherhood. He’s always been a supporter of the Dark Brotherhood’s facebook page, and will surely be one of the most ardent supporters of every other institution the Brotherhood adopts.

More recently, Halcyon has been working side by side with me in the creation and execution of the Taldryan competition Gathering Darkness. This competition has been designed to test out many new types of competitions, including new forms of co-op fiction and a fully adaptive plot storyline. In the end, it’s just a simple fact that if the Brotherhood offers something? Halcyon goes out of his way to learn it, so he can help others participate in it. That is being a mentor. Halcyon is always looking for the chance to make the Brotherhood, and thankfully Taldryan, a better place for not just himself, but every member in the club.

It is my great honour therefore, to recommend that Halcyon be awarded a Ruby Sceptre for all of his hard work.

Sincerely,

Dark Jedi Master Keirdagh Taldrya Cantor, Proconsul & Proud Son of Clan Taldryan

Halc has been an excellent mentor and teacher in the ACC since he joined our staff in beta. As one of the initial supporters of an exam-based take on qualification, it should come as no surprise that Halc’s efforts have been exemplary when it comes to exam grading. Halc has covered more than a quarter of all ACC Fundamental exams graded, helping keep the turnaround time on those exams extremely low. More than that, though, Halc has been one the most active ACC Judges in one of our most important areas: Grading qualification exams. This exam, with shared judging by all ACC Judges, is one of our primary points of really providing detailed feedback to members on their writing, and it is here that Halc exceeds. Halc has graded more than twenty percent of all ACC qualification exams, with more than thirty exams graded. Halc’s feedback is also superb here, where he highlights the issues members have excellently. Together, his performance as a grader on these two exams makes him the only member of the staff to grade more than twenty percent of both exams.

Beyond that, Halc has been an excellent resource and mentor for me in many ways. His past experiences as Combat Master have been invaluable in our reconstruction of the ACC, and it is this experience on which I have leaned many times for advice on directions to take the ACC and how best to engage and maintain membership activity.

Halc’s work in Taldryan, as detailed by others, along with his excellent record as a mentor in the ACC, make him more than qualified to receive a Ruby Scepter. Congratulations, Halc!

Telaris “Mav” Taldrya Cantor, Combat Master & Aedile of House Dinaari

---

The RS has a focus on honouring those in the Brotherhood who are involved in: “areas of instruction, invention and mentorship,” and Halc is one of those leaders that has fulfilled those criteria in spades. As a leader of Taldryan, Halcydoodle helps develop all of her members, not just those under his command in Ektrosis, this ranges the full gamut - from offering guidance to (and directly training) our newest members, to helping out his ancient clanmates with their latest hair brained schemes. My colleagues have already discussed some of Halc’s leadership statistics, his competitions run and participated in, but not Halc’s personal accomplishments.

Since his last Grand Cross of the Dark Side, Halcycon has earned himself 19 crescents for competition placement (1 Ruby, 4 Amethyst, 6 Sapphire, 3 Emerald, 5 Topaz), 4 Pendants of Blood, 1 Gold Nova, a Seal of Loyalty, of the Master, 12 Scrolls of Indoctrination, and 3 Dark Side Scrolls. To put it bluntly, Halc is active as hell. From my perspective, Halc’s own activities do not solely demonstrate his own activity - but rather, they are examples of his greater leadership and instructional actions. He is the type of leader that mentors and instructs not just through his words, but through his actions - he doesn’t just say “go be active” - he shows his members throughout Taldryan what it means to be active.

Halc’s mentorship of Taldryan’s members also extends to me personally. When I first came to Taldryan, I knew how the DB worked, I knew what it meant to be an administrator, but I did not have a damn clue how to be a member of a Clan - or how to lead people (hell, I probably still don’t). I have seen Halc work on proposals and policy documents from all aspects of the DB (including Taldryan’s own clanning document) - always there to offer a cogent point or a new perspective. I have watched Halc put extraordinary efforts into designing and implementing Taldryan events, such as Gathering Darkness, and I have seen him give a damn about the DB when lesser men would have thrown up their hands in frustration and just said “to hell with it.”

Watching Halcyon as a member and leader Taldryan and the Brotherhood for the past few years has given me a new perspective on what a member and a leader can and should accomplish in this club, and I strive to be more and more like him (except for the green parts) every day. I have learned much from the actions and attitude of Halcydoodle, and I believe if more members of our club attempted to do the same? We would be much better off.

For his mentorship, instruction, and leadership of Taldryan’s members new and old (and the Brotherhood at large), Dark Prophet Halcyon Taldrya must be awarded a Ruby Sceptre.

Signed, the fat Panda

Grand Master Declan Roark, 2014-08-23 02:46:06 UTC

Marick Arconae has served on the new ACC's staff since the projections inception. Marick has served in multiple roles as content creator, administrator, course designer, and guide writer. These roles have been tremendous in their scope and herculean in their effort. Throughout Marick's tireless efforts he has always been driven by the principle of delivering content that enhances and improves the average members experience in the Dark Brotherhood. This began with his work on the creation of character sheet guides, species creation submission sheets, and multiple other projects designed to help our members create character sheets. Marick's efforts as an administrator for the Voice staff saw him approve, remand, and provide content on hundreds of character sheets. He would purposely take the time and effort to provide feedback to members who had their character sheets remanded and would often email them to help walk them through the process. Wally continued his work in the realm of mentorship by developing the ACC Shadow Academy Exams designed to teach our members how to participate in our new story driven ACC. These exams and their new function as qualification tools for the ACC required a level of detail and explanation that few exams can boast. Marick crafted them in a manner to help and improve our club's ability to participate in this avenue of activity. Lastly, Marick has written and designed an multiple guides (CS Guide, CS Approval Guide) relating to the ACC/Character sheets that further clarify any potential misunderstandings our members may have. These guides were written with no direction and guidance and were solely the fruits of Wally's desire to help our membership. Marick is a master mentor in our club with a focus on helping every member to enjoy our organization. An award like the Ruby Scepter was designed for members like him. Congrats! - Grand Master Pravus

Wally has always been my deputy of sorts, but his most important work of late has been as a mentor and teacher for new members working through designing custom Aspects. Wally is incredibly creative and has gotten very good at helping guide and develop member's character sheet Aspects. While he sometimes seems overzealous, he is driven by a desire to help every single member that submits a CS. Wally has added most all of the new races added to the system recently, has been proposing new feats, and has worked tirelessly to see that member concerns are addressed in his CS work. On top of this, he is by far the fastest to clear and approve the character sheets in the Queue.

This same attitude towards mentoring was visible when he originally proposed the two tests for the ACC, the first of which, ACC fundamentals, is used virtually verbatim from his first proposal. He continues to be one of the faster judges over the course of the Open Beta, and he served as one of the small number of Closed Beta testers.

Overall, Wally's strong drive to continually improve the members of this club and to help them understand and enjoy the systems he helps create make him perfect for the Ruby Scepter... So congratulations, Wally! ~ Mav

Grand Master Declan Roark, 2014-05-08 14:07:07 UTC

The Ruby Scepter is an award given to the greatest of mentors of the Brotherhood and I can think of no greater mentor in modern memory than Sang.

Sang is a serial master, having guided three members through to the conclusion of their trials (Inarya, Kalon and Anigrel) and I'm sure still aids these students to this day.

But his mentor-ship is not limited to just new members within his own clan. Sang is also a Professor of the Shadow Academy where he overseas the Department of Lore Studies. His grading turnaround time is among the fastest, if not the fastest, of all graders. This ensures students get their results in an impressively fast time, often times meaning newer members get to their next promotion that much sooner.

Sang, thanks for all the work you do for the Dark Brotherhood.

Master Windos, 2013-12-05 07:22:42 UTC